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[email protected]> wrote in message
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[email protected]...
> Report in local rag about a proposed bridge where cyclist are supposed
> to get off and push.
We have had exactly the same situation in Bristol, twice!
The first time, Pero's Bridge for anyone that knows it, the planning
committee gave permission for peds-only bridge, despite it being on a
council-defined "strategic cycle route" I took them to the ombudsman and
won. We were told many times that it would never happen again, and that
cyclists would definitely be allowed to ride over the other planned bridge
in the docks.
No. Valentines Bridge was designed by idiots (WS Atkins, are you blushing?)
despite being planned as a ped/cyclist bridge, it was designed as ped-only,
and approved by, you guessed, the planners. Allegedly, a cyclist fell off
because the surface wasn't suitable for cycling, so the owners put up
chicanes to make the cyclists dismount, which the council then refused
planning permission for and supposedly issued an enforcement notice - three
years later, they're still there.
Oh, and Sustrans gave the bridge an award for being so good for cyclists.
The local paper featured the story and took a picture which managed to mask
the "cyclists dismount" signs.
My advice is to make very large waves indeed, all the press and publicity
you can get, now and at the planning committee, pointing out that their
planning policies include cycling, and if this goes ahead, you will be
asking for an investigation into why they aren't following their own
policies.